Learn about the different forces and sensations you may experience when entering the water for the first time, and the essential (yet hidden) process of developing core stability in the water, (which takes different lengths of time, for different people).

Developing the most important and essential thing in order to feel safe, relaxed, and in control in the water: the hand-water connection (no grasping on to kickboards with this method!). The hand-water connection is what will enable you to keep your head above water whenever you wish — an essential safety ability — but is often neglected in other teaching approaches.

Learn why the ability to hold our breath is an essential, yet often neglected element of breath control (not just having the ability to ‘blow bubbles’) and how developing this ability will enable our breath to become our greatest ally throughout our process of learning to swim.

I’ll share my 5 most important tips with you when ‘looking under the water’ for the first time, in order to ensure it is a positive experience, and that you feel completely in control throughout. You’ll learn how to trust and become familiar with all of the new sensations, and I’ll guide you to ensure that water doesn’t go up your nose.

Through 3 key steps in this process, you’ll not only become completely comfortable, but you’ll also learn to develop a state of relaxation with the experience of being under the water, and we’ll learn about — and tap into — a biological adaptation for being in the water that we all have, known as the Mammalian Dive Reflex.

We’ll learn how to explore this unusual force acting on the body in water — which, at first, may feel unfamiliar or even threatening when we don’t yet understand it or know how to work with it. But, like our breath, buoyancy will also become one of our greatest allies when we’re learning to swim. (In fact, our breath and our buoyancy are very closely linked!)

Sometimes, when people ‘try to float’ - they find that they just cannot seem to float (yet, most people — more than 99% of the human population — CAN physically float). We’ll explore the two key reasons, and solutions for this, in this video.

We’ll learn about the 4 different body types that have been identified in my method, with regards to varying levels of buoyancy, and throughout this method I will provide adaptations for all 4 different body types (because different body types require different approaches and techniques when learning to swim).

Now that you are aware of your buoyancy, we’ll take the next step to being able to float and glide in the water. We’ll learn about the necessary balance between ‘relaxation’, but also ‘engagement’, in order to achieve our optimum posture, and I’ll help you to become aware of both the psychological, and the physical processes that take place, when we’re learning to float independently in the water, for the first time.

Often, this is a process of becoming aware of tension in the body, and learning to release and relax, as we develop a trust in the natural support of the water, and develop a sense of relaxed stability.

Physical support from within the water will become essential at this stage onwards until the end of the Foundation stage, for your safety and comfort, as you develop trust and familiarity, as well as the essential skills, to stay safe and independent.

This video will also show how that physical support and assistance can be most appropriately and helpfully provided, from either a qualified teacher (ideally) or at the very least, a highly competent partner (and always under the supervision of a lifeguard).

We have to know — and trust — the destination first: our ability to float and glide. That’s why we always focus on mastering this core skill first.

Yet, how we ‘start’ our glide, will determine whether we end up gliding successfully, or if we fail in a panic (through feeling out of control or unstable!). In this video we’ll learn how to ‘start’ our glide in the smoothest, most relaxed, stable and supported way, ensuring a smooth transition into our floating and gliding.

Learning to return to standing position, in a way that is safe, relaxed and controlled, is so essential to feeling safe and relaxed with whatever we are doing when we are in the water. It’s the inevitable transition that we will always have to face when taking part in any activity or practice we are doing in the water — that is, unless our feet never come off the floor in the first place!

Learning to stand is another very neglected skill in many teaching approaches, that often resort to using ‘kickboards’ to bypass this challenge. The only thing with that is… learners are then never comfortable swimming WITHOUT kickboards, and after 5, 10, 20 weeks of ‘kicking and blowing bubbles’, they find that without their kickboard, they’re straight back to square one — feeling tense, unstable, and lacking any sense of control!

And because they are holding/gripping kickboards for most of the time, they never develop the supportive, hand-water connection.

And consequently, they never learn how to truly become safe and relaxed in the water.

This video series will change that.